Beginning today, Europeans are eating somebody else’s fish

A new report reveals that starting July 3, the EU will be dependent on seafood from elsewhere, six days earlier than last year.

For the second year in a row, Ocean2012 and the new economics foundation release a report on Europe’s increasing dependence on fish from elsewhere.

According to the report, the real impact of EU overfishing on its own stocks, and thereby on the availability of fish in the market and on menus across Europe, is masked by imports. If the EU were to consume only fish from its waters, it would run out July 2, making it dependent on imports beginning July 3.

Individual EU member states became dependent on fish imports as follows: Portugal, April 26; Germany, April 27; Italy, April 30; Spain, May 8; France, June 13; and U.K., July 16 (projected).